UL women renew series with LSU

Five former Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns student-athletes and three former administrators will be inducted into the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s Athletics Hall of Fame.
Caitlin Jacob

UL sophomore starting point guard Jasmine Thomas returned to the court for the first time this season Wednesday and is hoping to make more progress at LSU on Sunday afternoon.(Photo11: SCOTT CLAUSE / USATODAY Network)

So, not really knowing the situation, Maggard sent UL women’s coach Garry Brodhead an email to inquire about the possibility.

“We’ve been trying for two or three years (to schedule LSU),” Brodhead said. “It just never worked out.”

It wasn’t exactly a perfect fit this time either. A conference game had to be moved, but the idea quite possibly blossomed into even more than Maggard and Brodhead originally expected anyway.

“They agreed to a home-and-home with us,” Brodhead said. “I think it’ll be big for them to play a home-and-home with us. I know the (benefits) of playing up and playing against SEC opponents. It gives us a little perspective of where we’re at.

It'll be the first meeting between UL and LSU in women's basketball since Nov. 21, 2007.

Fast-forward to mid-December and Brodhead was hoping his Ragin’ Cajuns (4-6) would be a little farther along in the process of this transition 2017-18 season.

Injuries to veteran guards Jasmine Thomas and Troi Swain have complicated the progress of exciting freshman guard Skyler Goodwin, among others in the backcourt.

Making those obstacles tougher to deal with is the rugged schedule. LSU (5-3) will actually be UL’s fourth SEC opponent this season, falling at Texas A&M 83-62 and Mississippi State 94-37 before losing 70-60 to Auburn at home on Dec. 8.

While some progress definitely showed up in that loss to Auburn, some familiar issues remained.

“They (Auburn) were pressing off misses, which you don’t see very often,” Brodhead said. “A lot of turnovers are leading to a lot of layups. That’s one of our pet peeves. We don’t like giving up layups.

“We have to bring turnovers down. This is the most turnovers we’ve had in a while, but you have to realize that we haven’t had our point guard. Her impact on the game means a lot to us.”

It wasn’t "back" like Brodhead hopes Thomas will be come Sun Belt play at Little Rock on Dec. 29 after her offseason knee surgery, but the sophomore point guard did score nine points in 13 minutes in Wednesday’s road win over Southeastern.

Also returning to the court in earnest was freshman forward Ty’Reonne Doucet after just a two-minute appearance very late in the Auburn game.